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Heaven Is A Lot Like Kentucky

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Heaven Is A Lot Like Kentucky

"Daniel Boone was five feet, ten inches tall. He was very well set and well made. He had reddish, sandy complexion hair. He had a high forehead and was hollow-eyed. He had a middling long nose and a wide mouth and good set of teeth. He was a man of remarkably pleasant temper. Nothing ever appeared to ruffle his mind or make him uneasy. "

Josiah Collins, earlier woods companion of Daniel Boone. Draper Manuscripts volume 12 CC page 74.

Late September/early October 1780 near the Licking River He rubbed the back of his head and let his fingers play across the two-inch long scar that ran down his scalp to his neck.

He'd received the gash compliments of a Shawnee warrior's tomahawk almost exactly one year ago when the 'big siege" on Fort Boonesboro had begun.

Daniel Boone sometimes rubbed the scar on his head, one of many scars he'd collected on the Kentucky frontier, when assessing the terrain as he was doing now.

He still limped from a Shawnee musket ball, which shattered his ankle in 1778.

His eyes scanned the horizon looking for any sudden movement or any piece of vegetation that looked out of place. He was always careful when traveling near the Licking River and he was being extra careful since his brother Ned was along with him on this hunting trip.

Daniel wasn't just familiarizing his brother with the intricacies of the buffalo roads that intersected northeastern Kentucky, he was also doing a reconnaissance of the area, particularly along the ancient Native American footpath that ran near the buffalo roads. The path was called the 'path of the armed ones', the At-lato-Oh-Waimee or Warrior's Trail, and was a heavily used path that connected northern and southern Native American Tribal lands.

Daniel didn't like what he saw near the Licking River at the Upper Blue Licks and the area where present-day Nicholas, bath and Fleming County joined together not far from a small riffle on the river known as Vaughn's Ford.

When he and Ned crossed Vaughn's Ford Daniel paused before leading his pack horse up the steep bank along the buffalo road. The area was used extensively by Shawnee hunters and had been the place he'd been taken to on the first night of his captivity two years earlier.

Many of the trees had the bark peeled away and etchings of geometrical shapes, turtles and deer were visible on the peeled areas of the trees.

He had wanted to go farther northward, to George Stockton's Spring (present-day Flemingsburg), and show Ned the wonderful landscape, but there was simply too much Shawnee activity and from the fresh footprints along the river bank, Daniel knew it was simply too risky.

The two men, their two horses and two pack horses re-crossed the river and moved back southwestward, retracing their steps.

It had been a hard year. The June attack by British and Native American forces had destroyed Ruddle's and Martin's Stations along with Grant's Station. Many of their friends had been killed or taken captive during the summer raid.

Others had also perished, including Colonel Richard Callaway, who was killed March 8.

Lt. Pemberton Raw-lings was wounded and died later during the same attack. An ugly but seemingly truthful was circulating that Micajah Calloway, who was Colonel Callaway's nephew and who had been captured with Boone and the other salt makers two years earlier, was among the raiders who killed Callaway and Rawlings and had become completely immersed into Shawnee culture.

The rumor ate at Daniel Boone's soul and was another reason he sought refuge in the. outpost they built called Boone's Station.

Ned had been fascinated with the wilderness terrain, but he did not understand that the land could be brutally indifferent to the plight of the Kentuckians when the Shawnee were about.

They moved quietly and slowly back away from the Upper Licks and the Licking River and toward Plum Lick, where Daniel wanted to make camp. It was an idyllic surrounding with a small beautiful fresh-water spring bubbling forth near a small creek. Daniel had given the spring the name of plum lick due to a small salt lick being located there. He and a friend had watched the lick for deer one day and had eaten a hat full of wild plums while they waited.

He smiled as he thought of it.

Little did he or Ned know, but death would be waiting for them at Plum Lick.



Copyright 2010 The Bath County News-Outlook, Owingsville, Kentucky. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 The Bath County News-Outlook Owingsville, Kentucky. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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